5.22.2018

Luckily... I have some amazing big boys that love their mom to pieces, and that makes it all a little bit better.

It is always shocking to me how different kids are... that come from the exact blood line and the same upbringing.

Beckam is very much his own little person.

He is very care free, imaginative, sweet and explorative.

He also has great hair and eye lashes.

And that dimple!

Beckam can spend hours in a room of legos, or blocks, or magnatiles and create the coolest things I've ever seen.

Things that I probably couldn't even build.

And he also comes up with a purpose or a plan for it.

The best part... if his amazing inventions break, he rarely gets upset.

He sees it as an opportunity to build it again, but even cooler than the first time.

And every day it is something different. A new invention or architectural genius.

He does however tend to break a lot of lego masterpieces.

In his eyes, he wants to build something cooler, which is unfortunate for the generally type A family members of his,

The kid is obsessed with his baby brother... who I suppose I should stop calling "baby".

He can't get enough of him, and likes to touch his face (?).

This usually results in Bennett's eye getting poked.... seriously, at least once a day.

He also likes to get Bennett to agree with him on any number of topics by just getting him to say "ok."

They giggle lots, and I just love it.

He is still very much so allergic to eggs.
Peanuts too, but not as severe.
It is great that he is old enough to kind of understand the importance of asking before he eats something, but also terrifying that eggs are in SO many things.
Let's just pray that he doesn't ever need the epi-pen I am always toting around.

The sense of humor on this boy is the best.
He loves to make people laugh and will do almost anything to make people happy.
He seriously loves to laugh.
And it is the BEST little laugh!

We have been so blessed with the sweet boy.
I am so proud at the young man he is becoming.
His free spirit makes me realize he will probably not live on the farm forever... but he has informed me I get to go to college with him and pick out his wife... so... I'll take it.

5.21.2018

Since Beckam has a birthday tomorrow, I figured that it was only fitting that I do Brody's birthday post from February. After all, this blog is basically my kids baby book. (Boy have I fallen off the blog wagon!)

Brody, Brody, Brody.

What an amazing kid.
This boy will do great things!

He is driven, a great worker, and a little boss.

He needs to be kept busy, or else he is getting into trouble.

I can always count on him to help me work in the yard and garden.

His specialty is driving his 4-wheeler with the leaf rake and picking up all of the cut grass.

He is also an excellent gardener, and has quite an array of vegetables growing currently.

I am hoping that these traits, along with his love of helping all around the farm, means that he will one day become a farmer and never leave me.

He enjoys bossing around his brothers.

Beckam has not been quite as eager to follow along recently, and that causes a ridiculous amount of fighting.

When they aren't fighting though, they have so much fun together... and he is working on letting Beckam have a say in what they are doing.

Brody is a huge help with Bennett too, and Bennett just adores him.

I love watching him sing to Bennett at night time, and do their own special bedtime routine.

Brody has a bit of his mother (ahem) in him also and a few weeks ago when he saw a little video clip of Bennett as a baby, he nearly cried at how little he was and how fast he is growing.

Their bond is cute.

Bennett still can't get away with stealing Brody's legos though. Brody makes sure that those are built and hidden in a special location where they can't be reached or destroyed.

Boy are we blessed to have this dude leading our pack of boys.
Being a big brother is a big responsibility and he does it well.

This guy is smart!

He digs math, science and history the most, and really enjoys his homeschool group.

We are so proud of all of the hard work he puts in to school and learning.

I can't wait to see where this next year takes him, and all of the new accomplishments he makes.

He is growing up way too quick for my liking.
His two middle bottom teeth have come out, and a top middle tooth is currently loose.
Before long we will have those super awesome adolescent stages happening. :)

Boy is this kid loved!
A special dude, with a big heart, and a huge fan base.

You will only get a peek of the side of his eyes and he glares at you from them.

Such a little people person we are raising. Yikes.

He will however, go to extreme measures to get his brothers to laugh.

Whether it is by racing, dancing or just making crazy noises.

They love each other.

And I love to watch that love.

He is always quick to go and give Brody or Beckam a hug if one if them is hurt or sad.

Yet, he will also get his "fight face" on and attack one of them at random... in which case it sometimes causing them to be hurt or sad.

Kid has no mercy.

And he wrestles with the big boys as if a medal is on the line.

Can we say competitive?

Bennett is somehow still sleeping in a crib.

I have no idea how... but I am pretty sure I have been successful in making him believe that he can't crawl out.

I make a big production about getting him out of it, and he probably thinks that you have to count to three and jump SUPER high in order to clear that rail.

(Brody was crawling out at 13 months and Beckam 18 months)

Either he is super obedient, lazy or just likes some time along without a brother smothering him.

Or maybe it is all three.

He is certainly capable of crawling out, considering he is by far the tallest of all of my babies.

Big guy is starting to talk a lot more.

He is also screaming and whining a lot, so... those words just can't come quick enough.

Just recently Bennett decided that he wanted to be attached at my hip again.
This was after a long stint of him ignoring me in the presence of Ryan.
I'm not sure why he decided to love me again, but I'm okay with it.
They extra love doesn't go unnoticed.
Especially after I've been carrying around all 30-ish pounds of him for an extended period.

In the last couple of months he has decided that he hates getting his picture taken.
This is unfortunate.
Mostly for him.
Because I am obviously not going to stop. Ever.

Bennett's loves in life are pretty much the same as they were when he was 18 months.
As I think about what he truly loves to do though, it is without a doubt play with tractors.
(And just recently cars too.)
He goes through our tractor bin very carefully and selects certain tractors and implements.
He then carries them to the kitchen table and proceeds to hook them all up and park them in very tidy rows.
He doesn't really farm with them though.
They mostly just change implements and re-park.
Although I did see his combine unloading into a baler the other day. Room for improvement. :)

This task keeps him busy on most days.
He takes breaks from "farming" to go and destroy whatever it is his brothers might be playing with though.
Quite the pot stirrer.

The kid is huge.
He is super tall and full of muscle.
At least, that is what I have to assume since he is so skinny, yet incredibly heavy.
It might just be that giant noggin though.

He is constantly hungry.
He will munch all day and still eat three full meals.
His metabolism must be stellar.
And he certainly didn't get that gene from his mother.
I just can't even imagine life without this crazy kid.
He makes everyday more fun.
We sure are blessed.

7.06.2017

My farmer and I just celebrated our TEN year wedding anniversary.
It is crazy to think that I have known him for nearly half of my life.
And even crazier to think of all of the things that we have done/accomplished since we have been married.
Talking to you... kids.

When we decided to get married in June, I knew that I was signing on to zero anniversary celebrations.
Because... farming.
But this year, something magical happened.
We were done with hay, and there was a tiny little break in farming.
SO, we decided to take a quick little vacation to McCall, and ditch the boys at their grandparents.

Our first stop was zip lining.
As soon as I got up to the edge I was pretty nervous.
BUT, after my first drop, realizing I was hooked up tight, it was just so much fun.
I mastered the jump off without hands, and even did a mean canon ball in a zip line race with my farmer.
It was just so so fun, and that was only the start of the weekend.

Right after zip lining wrapped, we headed further up the mountain to McCall.
We went straight to Aspen Villages to check out our new digs.

If you are heading to McCall, you need to check it out.
You can get rooms by the night, unlike most other rentals that make you do a minimum stay of usually 3 days.
Probably best of all though, there is no cleaning fee.
Every time we have gotten a vrbo, the cleaning and misc. fees are always astronomical.
So I was thrilled to see that wasn't even on their expenses.

AND they are much nicer than any hotel you could stay in.
Just take a little lookie...

This is the very smallest rental, which can sleep 6 people.

It was just my farmer and myself, but there is PLENTY of room for our whole family to stay comfortably.

And we were even greeted with flowers, bubbly and huckleberry chocolate!

That chocolate lasted about 5 minutes.
It didn't have a chance.

After moving in, we headed down the street for a delicious sushi dinner.
And I'm talking DELICIOUS!

Apparently they fly their fish in daily?
That's what they said at least.
I wouldn't know either way.

After we are our weight in sushi, we ran to the grocery store, grabbed some pints of ice cream, and headed back to our rental.
We were able to sign onto our own Amazon account on the TV there and rent movies.
SCORE!
I'm pretty sure I fell asleep during the movie, so it must not have been that good...
or I was just so full of sushi and ice cream I couldn't keep my eyes open.

The next morning... after I slept in until 9 am (what!?? prettttty sure i haven't done that since i was like 16)... we hit The Club.
Not like dancing...
At Aspen Villages they have their own high end club that is free to use for any renters.
It is actually used by many locals to McCall even, because it is that awesome.
Racquetball court, basketball court, tennis courts, pool, sauna, ping pong, and a full gym.
I didn't get any pictures here, because I was very busy trying to beat my farmer at a few games of racquetball and basketball.
And then we had a little stationary bike race.
I am certain that I lost at every one of our competitions... but that didn't keep my from trying.

Fun fact.
My farmer used to come and stay at Aspen Villages growing up.
Every winter, when the farming was halted, they would take a week and spend it in McCall.
They stayed in a unit that was the same as the one we stayed in... but with very 80's decor... (luckily they have updated them very modernly.)
I think that we will continue this fun tradition.

After losing to my farmer, we hit the road and ate some delicious breakfast at the Pancake House before going and renting a side-by-side for the afternoon.
As we drove into the rental place, it started snowing.
Mind you this was JUNE... not January.
They offered to let us cancel our reservation... but we stuck with it, bundled up, and started our trek.

Somehow blue skies came out for about the first hour of our adventure.

AND then it began to rain, hail and snow on us more.
We did our loop that we had planned, but returned the rental a little early since we were freezing.

McCall has a few natural hot springs around, so of course that was our next stop.
We drove out to Burgdorf, and got super warmed up in their small 115 degree pool and then their big pool.

We ended the night with more sushi, more ice cream, and more amazon tv.
The next morning, when we woke up, we found a fox playing out our window.

It was so cool.
Also, that pool and playground!!
Hopefully next time we go, it won't be snowing so we can take advantage of that too.
It was a fabulous fast getaway, and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Again, if you are headed to McCall, check out Aspen Villages (HERE) to stay.